UN seeking $8.8 billion to adress humanitarian needs in Syria

'Basic service infrastructure is damaged or destroyed, and the social fabric is strained to the limit"

DAMASCUS, Syria - Eight years since the war began, 12 million Syrians are either refugees or displaced inside Syria; adding up to around half the pre-war population.

Violence has lessened in recent months but the "bombs are still falling", the chair of a Human Rights Council-appointed probe, Paulo Pinheiro, told the forum on Tuesday, his comments coming amid airstrikes in opposition-held north-west Idlib governorate and reports that ISIL extremists are close to defeat in eastern Syria.

Echoing that message, Mr. Grandi insisted that Syria's neighbours "who have been sheltering millions of Syrian refugees for the past eight years" require "no less support".

UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator, Achim Steiner, also warned of "soaring" poverty inside Syria, before highlighting the need to support Syria's neighbours too.

"In Syria, poverty is soaring, basic service infrastructure is damaged or destroyed, and the social fabric is strained to the limit," Mr Steiner said. "Host governments and communities in countries neighbouring Syria need our support to stay the course in extending their generosity to refugees while at the same time maintaining the momentum of their own development path."

At the Human Rights Council, the head of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria spoke of the "staggering" number of desperate Syrians forced to flee violence.

"Bombs are still falling and civilians continue to pay with their lives for the objectives of the parties to the conflict", Paulo Pinheiro said, noting that ongoing hostilities "threaten the lives and livelihoods of those daring to return".

Insisting that the conflict – now in its ninth year - continues to cause scores of civilian casualties, Mr. Pinheiro said that Syria's displaced population continues to face many other problems, including in areas retaken by Government forces.

"Persecution, discrimination, and other forms of ill-treatment continue in Idlib, Douma, Dara'a, and northern Homs," he said. "Arbitrary arrests and detentions continue in Government-controlled areas, including eastern Ghouta, Dara'a, and northern Homs."

Executions and deaths in detention have also continued, the Commission chair said on Tuesday, detailing "ad hoc and anti-terror courts of the Syrian Government", along with "makeshift justice mechanisms" of armed groups and terrorist organisations.

Speaking as the concerned country, the Syrian delegation criticized what it called the politicized climate of the debate and insisted that its government was simply trying to protect Syrian citizens from terrorism.